The former ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights says the controversy over Attorney General Jeff Sessions is part of a plan by Democrats to undermine the presidency of Donald Trump.

“Even before President Trump raised his hand to take the oath of office, Democrats were announcing their plans to engage in anything that gridlocks, obstructs, or delegitimizes his cabinet and his agenda,” said Blackwell, who served as domestic policy adviser to the Trump transition team. He went on to say:

As a senator, the Attorney General served on the Armed Services Committee where it is part of his job to meet with international dignitaries and Ambassadors from other countries. Senator McCaskill is today being reminded of her meetings with the same Russian Ambassador. United States Senators should be meeting with and talking to ambassadors from other countries. It’s part of their job description.

Writing at Reason, Ed Krayewski states that Sessions “should recuse himself from any investigations into Russian meddling in U.S. elections” if discussion about the election occurred during meetings with Russian officials.”

He continues, however:

But meetings between U.S. officials and foreign ambassadors, even of countries many insist are “hostile,” are par for the course.

The U.S. should engage with any country willing to engage, on any issue where there might be convergence. The U.S. and Russia, recent anti-Russia hysteria aside, have complex relations. In the last year, the Russian ambassador to the U.S. met with, among others, the administrator of NASA and the governor of Tennessee (though neither of these appeared to be unforthcoming about their meetings). Last month he was scheduled to attend a physics conference also attended by Los Alamos scientists.

“Senators meet ambassadors and should continue to do so, as such meetings make it more difficult to dehumanize an opponent and for warmongering hysteria to take hold,” Krayewski adds. “Elected officials should be encouraged to meet and talk to foreign officials, and to visit foreign countries to talk to officials, be they from Canada, Cuba, or Syria.”